Husband charged after allegedly aiding his wife's suicide

A man is facing charges after the death of a woman in a north Harris County apartment. Investigators say she killed herself, and he knew she was going to do it.

The man is now charged with assisting a suicide. It's a strange case that's renewing the debate over assisted suicide.

Mark Kelly is 47 years old. He's a native of London and a former truck driver who lost his job after an accident. More recently, he went to work at a fast food business. Both he and the woman he lived with -- said to be his wife -- were on hard times. Last week, she took her own life, but he's accused of helping her do it.

His name is Mark Kelly, and he's now a widower. Last Thursday, he left his wife alone at their apartment, according to investigators, when she said she wanted to commit suicide. When he returned Friday, she lay dead on the floor but she also left suicide notes around the apartment, say detectives.

Kelly is now charged with aiding the suicide of his wife, Sonia Dixon. According to the probable cause documents, the couple bought a pair of helium tanks from a party supply store. Internet searches reveal a list of entries about suicide by helium. What Kelly is accused of doing is helping his wife hook up the tanks to tubing, which was connected to a plastic bag, eventually killing her.

Assisted suicide is typically thought of in connection to terminal illness, but investigators believe Dixon was not terminally ill. Rather, financial problems are suspected by investigators as the motive. That, says our legal analyst, is probably why Kelly was charged.

"But don't help somebody to do it and that's what the law basically says, you're an aider and abettor and you shouldn't be an aider and abettor," KTRK legal analyst Joel Androphy said.

Kelly is being held on $2,000 bond, and he's been given a court-appointed attorney.